I am finally getting around to setting up my 120g RR tank. It has been taking me awhile, between school and living at the beach. I will try to keep an update the best I can here. As far as the equipment goes, I have
120g dual RR tank
50g sump w/refugium
OceanRunner 3500 return pump
Tek T5 6 bulb setup
Octopus NW 200 skimmer (have mods for it if needed)
two lil fishies phos reactor
Koralia 2 powerheads (2)
Koralia 1 powerheads (2)
Koralia nano powerheads (2)
I think that is about it for now. I have about 100lbs of sand thats new in bags and about 120lbs of liverock that has been cooked for a few months now. I plan on making pillars using pvc for supports and having two islands to cover up the overflows. I will post pics of the tank, lights and equipment tomorrow. I should get the tank on the stand tomorrow and get the sand in and a few gallons of new water. I am getting water changes from my brothers tanks so I can speed the cycle process up. Here is some pics of the 2x4 stand I just built, I plan to add plywood and doors later.
Hey man, good start. Stand looks good, very sturdy, you defintiely wont have any stability issues.
I cant wait to see pics of the pillar work. Ive seen several tanks with this type of aquascaping and some look great some not so much. Here is my favorite tank of all time aquacaped this way.
I LOVE the H. Magnifica on the column. Absolutely amazing.
Thanks! The stand was built using the stand template on RC. I think I know that tank, its a 300g right? I remember seeing it a while back, very nice!. This tank is going to be a reef, very peaceful and diverse reef. I love pillar setups as well, I was trying to find one of my favorites, but couldn’t. It was a bonsai style reef with pillars, very cool. I am getting the 300g stock tank for my FO setup though. I have thought about starboard, but for my reef, I will have many fish that need a sandbed (wrasses, gobies etc). I loved my old BB reef, very easy to maintain. In the stock tank though I want a sandbed because the inside will probably be rough and I know it’s uneven.
Here are pics of my lights,
Tek fixture
individual reflectors
just actinics
full spectrum (I’m worried it isn’t enough blue though)
I’ll get pics of my other equipment today and hopefully get the tank on the stand, maybe add the sand and some water to hopefully cut down on the cloudiness.
I agree Shawn the aquascaping in that tank is awesome.
Jeff are you sure that’s all the flow you’re going to have? Seems like very very low flow unless those are just supplemental to a strong closed loop. I suppose it won’t be too bad if you stick to softies only. Even then, I personally would use more, but just my two cents.
I also like the aquascaping but don;t like the bare bottom look. I prefer very fine sand but I know why reefers don’t use it (nitrate storage). I think if I do it again I will use starboard cut to the size of the tank and use some material to give texture. The fine sand will be glued with an epoxy resin. I think I will also include some pockets where sand would be say 2 " inches deep (Set up like small pools) so that sand sifters will have a place to hang out.
When i set my big FOWLR up again(crosses fingers hoping for big tax return!!) im definitely going to go barebottom. I will do epoxy directly on the tank, or epoxy on starboard. Check this thread out, i cant even tell that it was epoxied, pretty awesome!
Hey Al, do you know where starboard can be purchased locally?
It will be about 25x in a tank that size. My old 110 which you’ve seen jon, only have the return and two koralia 2s for flow. This tank will have about 1500gph more. But I broke one of my koralia 2s so I think I may switch up my flow. It is not an SPS tank, and I really don’t think you need all that flow. I only have two koralia nanos in my 37g cube and the corals thrive in there. It’s really whatever works for you.
Al, I like the idea of having “pockets” of sand but still pretty much bare bottom! Pretty cool! But how would you make it look natural?
LD, what was in your previous FO? Have any pics? What size did you have and what are you hoping to go with? I defintely say go barebottom or starboard. I loved the easy of cleaning up the tank, especially after big angels, tangs and triggers. I just like having sand in a reef, especially with a lot of the invertabrates and fish that need the sand.
Here’s some more eye candy.
OceanRunner3500 pump
Octopus NW 200 skimmer
notice the soda can
Here’s the dirty 120, anyone else have a section in the garage that looks like this? All this extra tanks/equipment, haha.
Here’s the final resting spot for the 120, added about 35g of new water. The rest will be from other established tanks.
Tomorrow I am getting about 80g of established water from my brothers tanks and also my 120lbs of cooked and cured live rock. I will be getting those mailbox markers for the supports for my rock pillars and start forming the rock work. Hopefully have all of it done by thursday! Oh yeah, TPP is getting in my female bellus angel hopefully thursday, so I will be picking her up this weekend! Can’t wait for that! I’ll post pics of the progress.
I’m getting it for $90, as long as it eats and swims properly. Some of these fish can have swim bladder problems. Hopefully they still get the angel in tomorrow and I can go get her Saturday morning.
I’ve added about 40g more to my 120, I am getting my rock tomorrow and will start (hopefully finish) the pillar formations and add about 30g more of established water. Then I gotta do the plumbing and get the sump setup. Should be a busy weekend, hopefully by sunday, everything will be ready and in a couple weeks, I can add all my livestock over. I can’t wait!
Couple updates, got my canopy done. Came out pretty nice. Got the lights up, made my rock pillars, they came out ok, will look a lot better when the corals on them. These are with just actinics on.
Thanks for the compliments. I like the one on the right better as well. I’m not happy iwth them, but we’ll see how they look with corals all over them. I didn’t have the best choice for rocks and really rushed making these pillars, took me about an hour for both of them. First time ever doing something like this, next time will be better. I am hoping to start adding some corals soon, see how they do in the new tank. I have to be careful about what fish to add, I have some aggressive right now in my cube haha.
I need some ronert! When I redid my sump/fuge I put a ball of it in there and it grew for awhile but now it has brown slimey stuff on it. Do you think I should swap it out with a fresh clump? I was gonna scrub my chaeto spot in the sump with freshwater to kill the slime. Does this sound like the right thing to do. I have caulpra in there and its ok it has no slime and its rooted
Tattoo, Take the cheato out of the water and place in a bucket of clean saltwater. Shake it till clean. Any time you get junk on the cheato or you do a water change clean the cheato ball. If diatoms and junk block light from getting to the cheato it will die back and release nutrients back in to the tank. One Cheato ball good as new.
You can also try to increase the flow as it will stop junk from settleing on the cheato.
